Until it issues a definitive proclamation, id Software traditionally responds to inquiries about a game's release date with the mantra "When it's done." However, this past weekend saw an exception to that rule when Todd Hollenshead let slip that the Doom developer's upcoming game Rage won't arrive in 2009.

　　"2010?! But I'm bloodthirsty now!" "No, it won't be out this year," the id CEO stated flatly in a GameTrailers TV interview posted last Friday. Geoff Keighley, the show's host, later confirmed the negative statement via his Twitter feed.

　　The news comes as a blow to those anticipating Rage, which was first shown to the public at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in 2007. In development for the Mac, PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3, the not-quite-open-world action game will let players drive around a postapocalyptic hellscape, Road Warrior-style.

　　Instead of said film's mohawked motorcyclists in seatless chaps, the game features bloodthirsty mutants who roam the wastelands between human settlements. To fight them off, players will be able to mount all manner of weapons on their vehicles, as outlined in GameSpot's QuakeCon preview.

　　With Rage not due until 2010 at the earliest, only one game bearing the id label will arrive this year. The suburban-Dallas-based studio is executive-producing Wolfenstein, the relaunch of the Nazis-meet-demons franchise in development at Madison, Wisconsin-based Raven Software. id is also in the early stages of development on Doom 4, the latest installment in its genre-establishing shooter series.